Via the White Dot Trail.
Trailhead: 1030. Summit: 1145. Car: 1300.
The forecast put the chances of a t-storm at a flip of a coin. I’ve hiked that bad Larry in a tropical storm before, so what’s a little thunder? OK, I’m crazy, but not stupid. Our aim from moment one was to be off the mountain, or at least well down from the summit, by 1300. We did well on that score.
And actually, the only score we failed on consistently was “stop and smell the flowers.” Pooh. If my blog has revealed anything, it’s that I’m a sucker for looking around at the flora and fauna. After hiking Monadnock 100+ times, it’s all about the slow longitudinal observation of the little things. On the other hand, we got a good workout. I went for a four mile run yesterday in the evening, and the heat was still sufficient to leave me feeling beat, so today’s much cooler temps were a boon.
The summit view was that of inside a ping-pong ball, so gazing toward the ground yielded the best views during those moments when we did take short breaks. There was a nice breeze above tree line, and a relatively small number of hikers, so one could have moments of serenity.
Other than that, we chalked up another one. Planning continues for future NE 67 hikes, so stay tuned.
2 thoughts on “Training Hike: Mt Monadnock”
When I did my 67, I found that the Carrabassett Valley lends itself to a wonderful 4 or 5 day point-to-point hike, starting at either at Bigelow or Saddleback and hiking to the other along the AT, picking up the 10 4k’s along the way. There used to be a shuttle service out of Rangely that would drop you off at the other end (I think it was about $80). Absolutely beautiful country.
Not sure if you’re the AT hiker emeritus that I spoke with at length about this, but yes, that’s excellent advice. I didn’t know there was a hiker shuttle up there. I’ll be certainly looking into that and posting about my findings. Thanks for the tip! (And you’re right, it *is* beautiful up there.)